What’s better: Roth or Traditional? Roth versus traditional. Better to pay the taxes now and no tax later, or better to pay no tax now and all the taxes later? This decision is relevant both when employed and also in retirement. In my upcoming webinar we will explore: Who should do Roth and who should
CSRS vs FERS – Full COLA, Diet COLA, or NO COLA (w/Video) Read the video transcript: Welcome back to the channel. So, FERS employees, I want to compare you to the CSRS system. I know you’ve heard about the CSRS system. I know. I know. You’re green with envy because you’ve heard that they got
TSP Report2024 Economic Forecast 2024 Economic Forecast – 8 Areas of Macro-Economic concern for the US: 2023 was a challenging year economically, but you wouldn’t notice that from the stock market. S&P500 ended 2023 up 24%. You’d think there’s nothing wrong with the economy. However, there are fundamental issues with the economy. We may not
TSP Report November 2023 Facts: The G Fund rate for November 2023 increased to 5%. Wow! The Fed Funds interest rate decreased slightly from 5.5% to 5.3%. This month’s unemployment rate increased from 3.8% to 3.9%. The 2nd Estimate for Q3 GDP came in at 5.2%. Last quarter’s GDP was 2.1%. PMI (Purchasing Managers Index)
Federal Sick Leave: What you need to know. Read the video transcript: Welcome back. I wanna continue the thoughts about sick leave. Last video we spoke about how sick leave could extend your service. I wanna hone in a little bit further with sick leave and see if there’s any other benefits we could extract
Is Retirement Better at Beginning or End of Year? Updated for 2024 I often hear people say “I’d rather retire sooner than later.” But when the choice of retirement dates is just a matter of a few months, then people often assume there’s not much difference between sooner or later. What difference does a few
The Recurring Long Term Care Insurance Price Increase Ultimatum FLTCIP policy-holders are, once again, being threatened with price increases.(For those who haven’t been following the news, OPM’s Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP) was suspended in November 2022 because of these price increases. No new applications are being accepted, but existing FLTCIP policy-holders still
TSP Planning Report October How does the market respond to war? Intuitively, wars introduce economic damage, uncertainty and instability, all ingredients to cause stock markets to fall. This intuition is supported by actual market performance: The S&P500 dropped 18% in the three months following the start of World War I, in 1914. The S&P500 dropped
Is it better to retire with the biggest balance of leave, or to spend down your leave? Read the video transcript: Welcome back to the channel. I want to ask a very simple question. What’s better to retire with the biggest balance of leave possible, or is it better to spend down your leave as
TSP Planning Report September 2023 Facts: The G Fund rate for September 2023 increased to 4.25%. The Fed Funds interest rate increased to 5.5%. This month’s unemployment rate increased from 3.5% to 3.8%. The 2nd Estimate for Q2 GDP came in at 2.1%. PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) expanded ever-so-slightly after 3 months of contracting, reading
Live Webinar – Creating a Retirement Distribution Strategy Which asset do you dip into to create your retirement income stream, and when? What happens when the market goes up? What should you do when the market goes down? We spent a career squirrelling away money for retirement, expecting our portfolios will be able to carry
Explore the intricacies of the FERS retirement system, often likened to a three-legged stool comprising FERS pension, Social Security, and Thrift Savings Plan. Learn about early retirement at age 57, avoiding penalties, and the role of the FERS annuity supplement. Get insights on how to optimize your retirement benefits.
Thank you very much for subscribing to my Newsletter.
Stephen
Stephen Zelcer © 2026 All rights reserved
Made by TB
